(New York) An alleged Russian agent, accused of involvement in attempted interference with the 2020 U.S. election, was charged in the United States on Wednesday with fraud and money laundering in connection with the purchase of luxury apartments in California.
“This Kremlin accomplice was sanctioned for attempting to poison democracy, showing he was willing, and able to exploit the banking system for his illicit purposes,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Breon. Peace.
According to the American justice, Andreï Derkach concealed his identity when he bought in 2013, for 3.9 million dollars, two apartments in Beverly Hills, on the outskirts of Los Angeles.
He had already been sanctioned by Washington in September 2020 for trying to “discredit” Joe Biden, then presidential candidate, in the context of “foreign interference in an attempt to undermine the presidential election”.
A wealthy and pro-Russian member of the Ukrainian parliament, Andreï Derkach is considered by Washington as an “active Russian agent”.
Helped by his wife Oksana Terekhova, he is said to have set up several fictitious companies and accounts using nominees to conceal his identity when buying real estate, used by his family and in particular his daughter, who lived in one of the apartments, according to the indictment.
The Justice Department said it seized both residences before issuing sanctions against Mr. Derkach in 2020, which included the freezing of all his assets in the United States.
Andreï Derkach had met at the end of 2019 Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, on the front line of an effort to prove alleged acts of corruption perpetrated by Joe Biden and his son Hunter in connection with Ukraine.
These claims have since been widely denied.
Close ties between Andrei Derkach and Russia are well established.
His father was the director of Ukraine’s Security Service and he went to the Russian Security Ministry’s Intelligence Training Center before joining the Ukrainian Security Service.
In 2020, the US Treasury reported that he “had been an active Russian agent for more than a decade”.
Andrei Derkach, 55, faces seven counts of sanctions violations, bank fraud and money laundering, and if convicted, faces up to 30 years in prison.
The Justice Department said it did not know where Mr. Derkach was.
In June, he was accused by the Ukrainian government of supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and an arrest warrant was issued for him.